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LEADERSHIP IS A PROCESS OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE, WHICH MAXIMISES THE EFFORTS OF OTHERS TOWARDS THE ACHIEVEMENT OF A SHARED GOAL.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Positive Leadership: When Starting a Company, Get Your Values Right


As a start-up gets off the ground, it has a short-lived opportunity to decide how it wants to do business. With each new hire company culture becomes more entrenched and somewhere after two dozen employees, it tends to cement. 

Establish a set of genuine values before your start-up gets too complex. 

Articulate a coherent philosophy about who you are and how you will work. Also be clear about who you aren’t and what you won’t do. This will make decisions easier and ultimately improve results. Rather than analyzing each new decision afresh, you’ll have a common foundation from which to make them. If you don’t do this deliberately when your organisation is young, the culture will (often rigidly) form itself. Companies that do not appear to have strong core philosophies, or that abandon them, tend to wander. 

Your philosophy is your corporate constitution and one of the most valuable pieces of IP you'll create.

Adapted from “Four Things to Get Right When Starting a Company” by Bruce Gibney and Ken Howery - http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/05/four_things_to_get_right_when.html

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